A/N: This chapter is my birthday present to you. It is currently unbeta-read because ritsu-chan is away on holidays. I will post to beta-ed version when she comes back. Until then, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own Harry Potter. Which is also why you'll buy these shoes I'm offering… NOT!
Chapter 4: A Bad First Day
A pair of green eyes slowly opened as Janina MacDonald was pulled from the realm of dreams. She sat up, disorientated in the way that people usually are when they first awaken in a new place. Green hangings replaced the violet that she was used to. Nina realized that she was now at Hogwarts, in the Slytherin sixth year girl's dorm. She was in the Snake Pit.
Slowly, Nina dragged open her bed hangings and looked around the room at the beds of her dorm mates. They were all still sleeping, or were they? It was, after all, 7:30 in the morning. Yanking off her blankets, Nina got out of bed and got dressed in her new black Hogwarts robes. She thought briefly of putting on at least something purple, but then decided against it. After all, she was a Slytherin now, whether she liked it or not.
Sighing, Nina made her way down the dormitory stairs into the common room. Unfortunately for her, the common room wasn't empty. Draco Malfoy sat sprawled out gracefully on a green sofa. He looked up as Nina entered the room.
"Well, at least someone's up," he drawled.
"Yeah. It's the first day of term and classes start at nine. You would think that more people would be up and about. Why are you up?"
"I promised I'd meet Isabelle down here before breakfast. Is she up yet?" Nina shook her head.
"I can go and wake her up if you want."
"Don't bother," Draco insisted. "Let her sleep. Now, would you do me the honour of coming down to breakfast with me?" He held out his hand to her. Nina inwardly groaned. No, she did not want to go down to breakfast with him. She was planning on meeting Miranda.
"Actually," Nina said, "I've already promised someone that I would meet them at breakfast."
"Who?" Draco asked, frowning.
"My best friend, Miranda." Draco's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"But she's a Gryffindor!" he exclaimed.
"Just because I'm in Slytherin doesn't mean that I'm going to cut ties with my old friends." Draco scoffed.
"Gryffindor is full of Mudbloods and muggle-lovers."
"Well Mira is neither. The deMarles are an old wizarding family after all." She wasn't going to mention that Miranda was half-blood.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a friend to meet." Nina turned on her heel and left the Slytherin common room.
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Down in the Great Hall, Miranda deMarles sat at the Gryffindor table, rather impatient at Nina's lateness. One, Nina was never late (It was always Miranda who kept Nina waiting) and two, she was starving! Miranda loved food, and was almost always hungry. Her mother once commented that if she continued to eat like she did, she would get fat.
Luckily for her, Miranda had an exceptionally fast metabolism.
Finally, Nina came through the doors of the Great Hall. Miranda could tell right away that she was pissed. Her face, which was normally a tad bit pale, had gone tomato red. Nina came and sat down across the table from Miranda.
"I hate Draco Malfoy!" she yelled. Luckily for Nina, there were no teachers around, and hardly any students. She ranted on.
"He's such a little…snake! I mean, who does he think he is!" Miranda nodded, not really knowing what Nina was ranting about.
"He thinks he bloody well owns the world. I swear, if I ever hear the term 'Mudblood' come out of his mouth again, I might have to kill him!"
"Kill who?" Hermione Granger came and sat down beside Miranda.
"Draco Malfoy," Miranda clarified.
"You and many others. Sometimes, I have a strong urge to strangle him." Hermione said, "Especially when he calls me a Mudblood. I did slap him once, though."
Miranda grinned. "Good for you."
"Oh, so that's what he meant by Gryffindor being full of muggle-borns and muggle-lovers," Nina mused. "Well, the little git is just full of himself. I don't know what Isabelle sees in him." Hermione and Miranda nodded in agreement, and started eating.
A few minutes later, Nina suddenly dropped her fork. Her face went sheet white and her eyes went glassy, staring blankly ahead.
"Nina, are you okay?" Hermione said shakily.
"Nina?" Miranda questioned. Nina snapped out of her trance. She quickly got up from the table and started to walk quickly towards the doors, Hermione and Miranda following. Out in the Entrance Hall, Miranda caught up with her friend.
"Qu'est-ce que c'est? Qu'est-ce que tu as vu?" she asked, sneaking glances at Hermione to see if she was listening. Nina shook her head.
"I have to go!" Nina turned around and ran towards the Slytherin common room. On her way there, she nearly knocked over Draco and Isabelle, as well as Marijah and Blaise Zabini, who were arguing again. She ran up to her dorm room, throwing herself on her bed and lying there until much later.
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It was nine o'clock, and Warren Bowen was already having a bad day. He had fallen out of bed, lost a sock, and missed breakfast. Now he was late to Advanced Potions, which he had been told was taught by Snape, and was hell if you weren't in Slytherin.
In Warren's books there was no such thing as a good first day of school.
Breathless, he flung open the door to the Potion's room. Snape glared at him as he entered.
"Five minutes late, five points from Ravenclaw. Now take your seat." Warren sat down in the only seat available, beside Nina. She looked as if she was having a worse day than he was. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, as if she had been crying.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Nina's face contorted in fury.
"Does it look like I'm okay?" she snapped. "I really wish people would just leave me alone!" Unfortunately, Snape heard them.
"Twenty points from Ravenclaw, Bowen. Don't make it fifty." He turned back to the board and finished writing the instructions for a colour-changing potion. Warren looked over at Nina, whose dark curtain of hair had fallen over her face, hiding it from view, and then looked around the class. Isabelle was at the front with Evie. Miranda had paired up with Blake, talking in hushed tones as they stole glances at Nina. Marijah was sitting with a lanky Slytherin boy, who looked rather unhappy at having her for a partner.
"Come on," Warren muttered to Nina, "we should get started." Nina nodded and they brewed their potion in silence.
When the bell rang, Nina cleaned up their cauldron, while Warren bottled a potion sample to give to Snape. Seeing that Nina was gone, he quickly caught up to Blake.
"Say, do you know what's wrong with Nina today?" Warren asked.
"Well," Blake replied, "Miranda said that she had another one of her…things… at breakfast."
"And?"
"And nothing. Nina ran off afterwards. She and Isabelle were late to Potions as well, though not as late as you." Blake lowered his voice. "Old Snape didn't take a point off of them."
"Snape is head of Slytherin house. He favors them." Blake shook his head.
"Must be nice to be in Slytherin," he said.
"Yeah."
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Warren and Nina weren't the only ones having a bad day. Harry Potter was in a bad mood, which he related to having Potions first thing in the morning. He knew the fact that he had gotten into Advanced Potions would annoy Snape, and so he braced himself for the onslaught of insults. Sure enough, Snape rose to the occasion, singling out Harry for things that really weren't necessary. If it weren't for Warren Bowen, Harry would have gone mad by the end of class.
It was nice to see Snape pick on someone else for once.
Harry had hoped that his day would get better as he walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Unfortunately, he was about to be sorely disappointed.
Malcolm Sykes was a man who emitted a strong air of authority. Like in Potions, the class fell silent as he entered the room.
Professor Sykes started class by taking attendance. He, like many other people, reacted to reading Harry's name on the register. However, he seemed to react in exactly the same way that Snape had that first Potions class five years ago.
"Well, well, well," he said, "it seems we have, Harry Potter, the famous Boy-Who-Lived in the class, hmm?" The Slytherins, with the exception of the three transfers, chuckled. Everyone else glared at Professor Sykes.
"It does seem that Mr. Potter got an "O" on his O.W.L.," he continued, "but I wonder if that was simply because of his connections." Sykes focused his piercing blue eyes on Harry. Harry glared back at him.
"Mr. Potter, please come to the front of the room. I'd like to see what you can do. The rest of you," he said to the class, "move the desks against the walls." While the rest of the class was moving the desks (Hermione was smart and used a levitation spell), Sykes smirked at Harry.
"It's time to see how good you really are, Potter," he said, that smirk which was so like Snape's never leaving his face. By now all the desks had been cleared and the rest of the class stood around, waiting to see what Sykes would do next.
"Mr. Potter and I are going to demonstrate the proper way to do a Shield Charm. Potter, go and stand over there." He pointed to the other side of the room, just in front of the doorway. As soon as Harry had gotten there however, Sykes had sent a curse at him. Harry had barely enough time to block it before it hit him. Somebody gasped and some people even went so far as to clap. Sykes's eyes narrowed.
"Did I tell you to use a Shield Charm, Potter?" Without waiting for a reply, he carried on. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for not following instructions." Harry glared at him. "Now let's try again, Potter." Sykes shot a Jelly Legs curse at Harry, who blocked it with ease.
"Now," he said to the class. "I want you to pair off and practice the charm. I trust that you all know at least one hex." They spent the whole class doing this, only the transfers and the former DA members having any luck with the charm. Sykes dismissed the class at the bell, shooting a malevolent glance at Harry. Harry returned it, filing out of the classroom with the rest of the class.
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Later that night, Miranda, Shelly, and Ciara gathered in a corner of the Gryffindor common room. Having finished their homework, they discussed the events of the day, more specifically Nina's space out.
"So you don't know exactly what happened?" Shelly asked for the tenth time. Miranda shook her head.
"One minute she was fine and the next…"she trailed off, starting blankly at the far wall.
"Maybe she just-" Miranda cut Ciara off.
"No, whatever she saw must have been really bad for her to have freaked out like that. Something's going to happen, something bad. I can feel it." The three girls fell silent, each retreating into her own thoughts. In each of their hearts, they knew that something was about to happen at Hogwarts. Something big. And they knew that this event would be the event that would either unite them, or divide them.
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Elsewhere in the castle, Marijah Zabini slipped out of the Slytherin common. Walking down the corridor, she looked around, and then disappeared into thin air.